Panel Just Follows The Bouncing Ball

January 1, 1990|By ROBIN BRANCH, Staff Columnist

So, OK, the Palm Beach County Sports Authority may not be any great shakes at luring big-time sports events to the area, but given the guidelines under which it operates, we`re lucky it`s doing as well as it is.

You`d be surprised at how hard it is to find big-time sports events of just the right size that everybody fits into the Crazy Horse Tavern for a drink after the game, and that`s just one nice thing about the Palm Beach Classic.

The other nice thing about the Palm Beach Classic is that it provides a great opportunity to throw a really big party with bed-tax money.

Not that somebody doesn`t deserve a party, of course, as a reward for luring the Classic`s world-famous, free-spending golfers and their legion of affluent fans to the West Palm Beach Auditorium every Christmas for ... ha ha. Just kidding. World-famous golfers wouldn`t play golf in the West Palm Beach Auditorium.

The Palm Beach Classic is actually a basketball tournament that draws upward of several college basketball players and their closest friends to the West Palm Beach Auditorium every Christmas for a four-game tournament.

CAN`T BELIEVE ALL YOU HEAR

According the Sports Authority and Classic organizers, this basketball tournament is one of the most (ahem) prestigious annual sports events that comes to the county, and one that pumps $600,000 into the local economy as fans fill two local hotels and patronize nearby restaurants.

But then again, according to the Classic`s organizers, a 150 percent increase from $10,000 to $25,000 in county grant money to the Classic was needed to ``cover site-related expenses, such as the West Palm Beach Auditorium.``

And according to the Sports Authority, the personal interests that two authority members have in the Classic don`t represent a conflict.

Unfortunately, interviews and a review of Palm Beach County, city of West Palm Beach and tournament records show:

-- That Sports Authority member John Sansbury, who is part owner of the Crazy Horse Tavern in West Palm Beach, helped arrange for one of the teams and their fans to celebrate there after this year`s tournament;

(``I said I believed our facility would be available,`` Sansbury says. ``The Crazy Horse happens to be the only bar in walking distance of the auditorium.``)

HERE`S A MAN OF MANY HATS

-- That West Palm Beach lawyer Daniel Bakst is not only a member of the Sports Authority (which gave $25,000 to the tournament), and the chairman of the Palm Beach Classic (which got $25,000 from the Sports Authority), but is also president of the local chapter of the University of Miami Hurricane Club (which is host to the tournament);

-- And that organizers of the 4-year-old tournament may have misled county officials deliberately in their pitch for funds this year by implying that money earmarked for a caterer was needed to rent the auditorium.

(In fact, catering wasn`t mentioned in the pitch at all, but after approving the $25,000 grant to the Classic out of the Sports Authority budget, which comes from the bed tax, county officials learned that the most expensive part of the Classic`s ``site-related expense`` last year was a $7,100 catering bill for a gathering of tournament sponsors, university VIPs, sports reporters and Sports Authority members.)

According to Sports Authority Chairman Richard Ellington (who is Sansbury`s lawyer), on the other hand:

-- Sansbury`s interest in the Crazy Horse is too ``minor`` to represent a conflict.

-- And Bakst abstained from voting on issues of direct benefit to the tournament.